LCCR Letter to Rep. Allen on REAL ID

Media 02.26.07

Recipient: Rep. Tom Allen

The Honorable Tom Allen


United States House of Representatives


Washington, DC 20515



Dear Representative Allen:


On behalf of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), the nation’s oldest, largest, and most diverse civil and human rights coalition, we write to express our strong support for your efforts to repeal the REAL ID Act of 2005. Repealing the law is one of LCCR’s top legislative priorities in the 110th Congress.


Enacted with no hearings, with minimal debate, and rushed through Congress as part of an unrelated emergency appropriations measure, the REAL ID Act mandates drastic and expensive changes to the manner in which states produce drivers’ licenses and other forms of ID. Because state ID cards that fail to comply with the law’s requirements by May 2008 will no longer be accepted for any “official purpose” by any federal agency – including by the TSA at commercial airport security checkpoints, as well as in federal facilities such as courthouses and office buildings – the REAL ID Act will soon have a drastic impact on virtually every single American who drives or flies.


• Even without DHS regulations, the National Conference of State Legislatures and the National Governor’s Association have estimated that it will cost at least $11 billion to carry out the requirements of the law in the first five years. It is almost certain that these costs will mean drastically higher fees for drivers’ licenses, tax increases, ballooning state deficits, or cuts in other critical state expenditures – not to mention drastically longer waits at DMV facilities.


• The law requires states to verify each document (birth certificate, utility bill, passport, etc.) that drivers’ license applicants use to prove their identity, with the agency that issued it. Less than 15 months before the deadline for compliance, states still do not have any helpful standards for what counts as adequate “verification,” any uniform system for obtaining it, or any way to compel assistance from uncooperative agencies.


• The law requires states to determine the citizenship or immigration status of every applicant for an ID card. Yet states do not have the infrastructure to get this information, and state DMV employees simply do not have the expertise in immigration law – a subject that rivals tax law in its complexity – to interpret it in a fair and accurate manner.


• The law requires states to set up new computerized databases that share personal details of ID card holders with other states and the federal government. This must be done in a way that allows easy maintenance and error correction but which, simultaneously, protects individual privacy and prevents identity theft on a potentially massive scale. Yet since the law was enacted, DHS has flatly refused to guarantee privacy protections in the ID card itself or in the mandatory databases, on the basis that the REAL ID Act does not require any such protections.


• Because the REAL ID Act gives DMV employees the authority to determine whether someone is a citizen or noncitizen before issuing an ID card, it could easily lead to discrimination against U.S. citizens who may look or sound “foreign.” Other citizens simply will not have birth certificates or other types of documentation required to get a REAL ID card.


• Because the REAL ID Act bars states from issuing REAL ID to noncitizens who cannot prove their lawful immigration status, and because immigration databases are notoriously incomplete and erroneous, many legally-present noncitizens could wrongfully be turned down. As a result, the law will drive countless numbers of immigrants further underground.


• Some states may provide “second-tier” licenses, as an alternative to REAL ID cards. Such cards will almost certainly be viewed with suspicion by police and other officials. In other states, the REAL ID Act will simply lead to more unlicensed, and, therefore, uninsured drivers on the roads – so even if the REAL ID Act made air travel safer, a very questionable assumption, it will make our roads more dangerous in the process.


The REAL ID Act was a poorly-conceived law that can never be made to work in any fair or reasonable manner. As such, we greatly appreciate your introduction of legislation to repeal it, and we look forward to working with you. If we can be of any assistance, please contact Rob Randhava, LCCR Counsel, at 202-466-6058 or at [email protected].


Sincerely,



Wade Henderson


President & CEO


 


Nancy Zirkin


Vice President/Director of Public Policy 



National Co-Signing Organizations:


 


Alliance for Justice


American Civil Liberties Union


American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations


American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees


American Library Association


American Policy Center


Americans for Democratic Action, Inc.


Arab American Institute


Asian American Justice Center


Asian Law Caucus


Backbone Campaign


Bill of Rights Defense Committee


Brennan Center for Justice


Center for Democracy & Technology


Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights


Center for National Security Studies


Church World Service/Immigration and Refugee Program


Citizen Outreach Project


Citizens Against Government Waste


Common Cause Consumer Action Council on American-Islamic Relations


Demos: A Network for Ideas and Action


Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund


DownsizeDC.org, Inc.


Episcopal Migration Ministries


Farmworker Justice


Hate Free Zone


Identity Project


Immigrant Legal Resource Center


Interfaith Refugee Action Team-Elizabeth


Japanese American Citizens League


Jewish Council for Public Affairs


Lambda Legal Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law


Legal Momentum


Liberty Coalition


Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund


NAACP National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund


National Center for Transgender Equality


National Congress of American Indians


National Council of Jewish Women


National Council of La Raza


National Disability Rights Network


National Employment Law Project


National Gay and Lesbian Task Force


National Health Law Program


National Immigrant Solidarity Network


National Immigration Forum


National Immigration Law Center


National Korean American Service and Education Consortium


National Legal Sanctuary for Community Advancement


National Organization for Women


New Immigrant Community Empowerment


Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances (Bob Barr, Chairman)


People for the American Way


PFLAG Nationa


Privacy Activism


Privacy Activism


Privacy Rights Clearinghouse


Puerto Rican Legal Defense & Education Fund


Republican Liberty Caucus


Service Employees International Union


South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow (SAALT)


Southeast Asia Resource Action Center


Sweatshop Watch


The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)


The Arc of the United States


The Multiracial Activist


The Rutherford Institute


United Automobile Workers (UAW)


United Cerebral Palsy


United Food and Commercial Workers International Union


United Steelworkers


U.S. Bill of Rights Foundation


VelvetRevolution.us


 


Statewide and Local Co-Signing Organizations


 


Águila des Norte Immigrant Justice Project Community to Community Development


Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California


Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles


El Centro de Hospitalidad


Fairfax County Privacy Council


Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center


Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition


Idaho Community Action Network


Kentucky Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights


La Fuente, a Tri State Worker & Community Fund (New York)


Long Island Immigrant Alliance


New York Immigration Coalition


Washington Defender Association’s Immigration Project


Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation